Sky Sports presenter who was schooled on Ireland quits after his show is axed
Presenter Rob Wotton has bid farewell to Sky Sports after infamously being schooled on the geography of Ireland six years ago.
Having joined Sky way back in 1998, Wotton has covered an array of sports. While he appeared sparsely on Sky Sports News, he was best known in recent times as the host of The Football Show. With this programme now axed by the broadcaster, though, he has decided to step down.
Wotton bid an emotional goodbye on Monday, with staff and friends gathering to give him a standing ovation. He ended with a heartfelt statement, struggling to hold back tears.
"It's been an absolute pleasure. I came here in my 20s, and I thought I was only coming for a couple of weeks," he said. "And look, they haven't been able to get rid of me. I keep turning up, maybe one day they'll pay me!"
Wotton, though, will want to forget when he found himself left red-faced six years ago after speaking to Irish rugby league star Brian Carney. The Cork-born player-turned-commentator swiftly corrected him when it came to speaking about the state of Ireland as an independent nation.
Carney was interviewed on Sky Sports after it was announced that the British and Irish Lions would return to rugby league after a 12-year hiatus, but after Wotton referred to the team solely as 'Great Britain,' the rugby star became irked.
(Image: Sky Sports)
Carney started off by saying: "Can we start with a geography lesson and a sovereignty lesson as well, please?" The graphic beneath his name also read '14 caps for Great Britain.'
"I saw a quote included from the Irish Rugby League chairman yesterday welcoming the return of Great Britain and Ireland.
"He was the only person in the whole press release to reference the fact that an independent country, Ireland, is also a part of this make-up. Unless that's changed, I'm going to go with Great Britain and Ireland."
After the dust had settled, Carney continued with presenter Wotton and expressed his pleasure at the brand's return to rugby league, citing himself as a 'proud Irishman.'
"But Rob, it's absolutely great to see this brand back," he added. "It's a huge brand in international sport and in rugby league. I was a very proud Irishman to pull on that shirt, considering the people who had played in that jersey beforehand.
"I had some great experiences, some of my best experiences playing in that jersey and playing with the crème de la crème of the Irish, the English, the Scottish, and the Welsh players that were available at that time."
(Image: Sky Sports)
Wotton's exit is just the latest in a line of departures involving long-serving Sky patrons. The likes of Jeff Stelling, Jimmy Bullard, and Geoff Shreeves have all left the broadcaster in recent years, and The Football Show joins Soccer AM on the chopping block.
The Mail reports that Sky executives are aiming to attract a younger demographic by eliminating outdated components, while favouring YouTubers and influencers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
28 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Brady or Keane? Which will Ferguson's Italian job resemble.
When Evan Ferguson scales the steps into the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday for his debut, he'll be greeted by a song to resonate with. Flags wants to be waved among 70,000 crowd before kick-off against Bologna to the backdrop of the club anthem: 'Roma. Roma, Roma'. At this embryonic stage of the Irishman's time in Italy, he's unlikely to grasp the language to translate all of the lyrics. "Rome - doesn't it enchant you?," starts a verse. "You were born great and you must remain great.' Ferguson for a long time was assumed to be a natural born talent. Combining height with dexterity is seldom mastered by a striker but through his teenage years the boy from Bettystown in Co Meath exhibited his array of traits at every level encountered. A Premier League hat-trick at 18 accelerated the hype machine to the extent he was being labelled Brighton and Hove Albion's next €100m sale. What's more, while everything else was excitable, his demeanour remained unchanged. Post-match interviews were notable for his monotonal answers, devoid of hyperbole. Budding gems are advised to remain the middle ground which is just as well considering the relative fall that followed the rise. Statistics will show the last of his Premier League goals was scored 10 months ago. What it won't show is that the majority of his 20 games since, including the international he scored in against Bulgaria in March, have involved bit-part roles. Fitness from injury recovery was one milestone but arguably his biggest challenge has been to gain match fitness from consistency of games. Gian Piero Gasperini is wise enough to spot traits others don't, explaining why he was prepared to run the gamble of recruiting a player with a miserly return of one league goal last season. That he was content to allow seasoned pro, England international Tammy Abraham, depart on loan to make room for Ferguson speaks of the trust he places in a forward with much to prove. Gasperini doesn't have much margin of error himself. He worked wonders at Atalanta, lifting the 2024 Europe League by shocking Bayer Leverkusen, but doesn't have the pedigree of lifting the Scudetto either as player or coach. Patience will be afforded for the rebuild, especially with ally Claudio Ranieri operating upstairs, but only to a point. Rafa Benitez seems on the money by predicting a two-horse race between champions Napoli and Inter Milan. Although Roma haven't won Italy's biggest prize since 2001 there's an understanding that fifth last season, 13 points off the summit, won't be acceptable again. Gasperini has openly expressed his frustrations at the summer transfer window, missing targets will staving off interest in Artem Dovbyk. The Ukrainian took ownership of Abraham's No 9 shirt but continues to be linked with an exit. Ferguson's frame will fill the No 11 jersey and should be supported behind by a couple of Argentinians at opposite stages of their careers. Pablo Dybala will be 32 in November, almost 10 years older than Matias Soulé, who also arrived from Juventus last year. He's yet to justify the €30m outlay. Another player with a major price tag, Jadon Sancho, has so far declined to become the latest troubled genius for Gasperini to sprinkle his magic on. Not quite off the table with just under a fortnight left in the window, it appears the Italians will concentrate on more willing recruits than the Manchester United outcast. Irrespective of late squad turnover, the focus on Ferguson to deliver is laser-like. Pre-season matches tended to revolve around the Irishman as the outball and yet the common conclusion is that his finishing will define his tenure. It will ultimately determine if Roma are confident to activate the €40m buy option. It's 35 years since an Irishman lit up Italian football. Juventus plumped for Liam Brady as their first overseas recruit after the ban on foreign signings was lifted. Two seasons extracted two titles; the second in 1982 sealed by his penalty against Catanzaro. Robbie Keane's 2000 switch to Inter Milan provoked comparisons, only for it to be brief. Marcello Lippi's sacking, coupled with the appointment of Marco Tardelli, conspired to restrict his presence to 14 appearances. Keane and Tardelli would later work together with Ireland. Landing somewhere in the centre of those spells on the success scale would suffice for Ferguson. Pressure sits easily on the 20-year-old's shoulders. All he has to show in the Eternal City is that greatness is permanent, not fleeting. E: Rising LOI fees still way to go for peer parity European ties create avenues for millions of revenue but also that byproduct of comparing the League of Ireland to competitors. For instance, a chasm in standards between this Island's entities was noted when Shamrock Rovers hammered Larne last year, in the same way Shelbourne's success over Linfield wasn't a surprise. Three years ago an emphatic 3-0 aggregate win for Sligo Rovers over Motherwell raised questions about the closeness to the Celtic cousins. Celtic and Rangers apart, it was generally accepted LOI teams would hold their own. Except that doesn't correlate when it comes to player valuations. Victor Ozhianvuna upcoming pre-contract deal with Arsenal will gross Shamrock Rovers just over €2m, breaking the export record set in February by Tottenham agreeing a similar arrangement with their North London rivals, Tottenham. Motherwell last week offloaded their prize teen asset for €5.5m. Udinese trawled these parts for a bargain, shelling out €600,000 for St Patrick's Athletic's James Abankwah in 2022. If he returns from his second loan at sister club Watford to Italy, meeting him will be Lennon Miller. Motherwell were chuffed to confirm they banked a record fee for the 18-year-old who last season wore the captain's armband against Rangers. Musical chairs at FAI continues as Morling in pole for CFO Being the financial controller of the FAI to deliver grim tidings hasn't been easy and the latest supremo, Dan McCormack, is saying goodbye. He's just over two years in the post and was responsible for addressing queries from Government committees and members at AGMs and general meetings. Latest available figures, up to December 2023, showed the association heaving under €40m of debt. The wait for last year's sum prolongs as the AGM has now been pushed out until November 8, due to an EGM getting called for October 4. The chief bean counter is the latest high-profile exit from the FAI in recent months, decimating the senior leadership team. Marc Canham was the most high-profile but Walter Holleran, Hannah Dingley and company secretary Derry Coughlan also quit. Vice-President John Finnegan didn't see out his term either. Eagerly awaited coming the other way is Canham's replacement as chief football officer. Various interesting candidates have emerged during the recruitment rounds, including a former Ireland international working at an English club and a left-field candidate with a League of Ireland and finance background. Yet the emerging sense is that John Morling will be returning to the FAI. He held development roles before joining Brighton as recruitment head and returned to assist newcomer Canham for an initial spell in 2022. The suspense is due to conclude shortly.
Irish Examiner
28 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Bowling: Young hotshots the highlight of five Munster finals
Munster bowling fans will have an incredibly busy weekend if they are to take in all five Munster finals from Friday to Sunday afternoon. Cathal Creedon against Eoin O'Donovan in Saturday's Junior C final at Derrinasafa is the prime attraction. These are two really impressive young players. Creedon contested the Munster u18 final earlier in the Summer and was part of the all-conquering Irish youth team at last year's European championships. O'Donovan is a few years ahead of him and is also a burgeoning talent. He won the Munster Novice B in October 2020, but, because of covid-19, had to wait almost a year to contest the All-Ireland series in September 2021 in Aughagower. Both come into the final with a nice mix of form and a few hiccups to keep them grounded. Creedon secured his place through a last shot win over Conor Lucey at Ballinacurra. He opened as if he would totally dominate the contest. He got a huge first shot and was almost at the church in two more, raising a bowl of odds. Lucey played a fine fifth shot to Foley's which brought the lead under a bowl. He was pushed back on his heels though, when Creedon got a big shot to the gas line to take his lead well over a bowl. Creedon kept the lead at or close to a bowl in the shots past Perrott's. Lucey gained traction with a good bowl to the GAA field and a brilliant bowl towards the bridge won him the lead. Creedon only beat Innishannon cross with his next one. Lucey hit back with another big bowl to the silver gate and he now was almost a bowl in front. Creedon pulled that back to just five metres with a great bowl onto the straight. He followed up with a huge bowl past the finish line. Lucey was left with his reply and missed the tip. O'Donovan needed a late rally too to see off Michael Ahern in the other semi-final at Curraheen. They were level after five each to light at Ryan's. Ahern went over the bridge in two more to go almost a bowl in front. He held that with his next two to the riding school. O'Donovan closed the gap dramatically with a great bowl from there. He followed with another big one to Richard's lane which won him the lead. Ahern nosed back in front with a fine bowl past Lane's. O'Donovan had the last word with a super last shot through the cross and past the line. Kevin Ó Crualaoí and Padraig Scanlon have a chance to test each other over the same Curraheen course, when they face off in Sunday morning's Munster Novice A final. In the semi-finals Ó Crualaoí got the better of David O'Brien at Shannonvale and Scanlon dismissed Tom Cronin in Béal na Marbh. O'Brien led well after four to McSweeney's. Ó Crualaoí closed the gap with a good fifth. But the defining bowl of the score, was his scintillating shot to Buttimer's pillars. O'Brien missed that well and then missed Desmond's cross. Ó Crualaoí went out to go a bowl in front. He scorched to Campbell's lane in just five more to keep his lead at a bowl, which was more than enough to see him home. Scanlon was engaged in a very tight contest with Cronin in the early exchanges at Ballyclough. He won the first significant lead with a big fifth shot up the hill. He was a bowl in front after two more to the end of the railing. He then comprehensively beat a big bowl from Cronin onto the straight. He raised almost two bowls of odds with his next one. David Minihane and Michael A. Cronin will contest the Novice B final at Grange on Saturday. Minihane's opponent, Alan Murphy, pulled up injured in their semi-final at Clondrohid. Cronin gave a five-star display in the second half of his semi-final win over T.J. Holman at Templemartin. The first final of the weekend is between Liam Kearney and Billy Healy in the Novice C decider at Newcestown on Friday. Kearney led all the way against Barry Coughlan at Inch. Healy held off a late rally from Eoin Hurley at Baile Bhuirne in his semi-final. Pa Daly and Cathal O'Sullivan contest the Novice D final at Ballinacurra on Saturday. Daly pulled off an unlikely win against Mark Bourke, thanks to a big second last shot at Ballyclough. O'Sullivan beat Mikey O'Callaghan by a bowl in the other semi-final at the Clubhouse. Maria Nagle beat Ciara Buckley in the last shot of the Gretta Cormican Cup at Newcestown. In the Tim Foley Cup at Templemartin, Cillian Kelleher beat David Hegarty in the last shot, with Kenneth Murphy two bowls behind.
Irish Daily Mirror
28 minutes ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Irishman's massive swimming challenge in World Record bid and fundraising effort
He has lost count of the number of times he has been stung by jellyfish. But Daragh Morgan won't be stopped in his bid to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by becoming the first person to swim around the entire island of Ireland. The Dubliner, who now lives in Galway, began his tidal-assisted stage swim on May 31 and is now over the halfway mark, averaging close to 20km per day. When we spoke on Monday, he had completed 868km of an approximately 1,600km long fundraising swim, which began from Blackrock Diving Tower in his adopted hometown. 'We passed the halfway point, which was Dublin. That was a great milestone for us as a team,' he told Fitter Happier. You can check on his progress via his Swim Éire socials, his website and a live tracker. Morgan, an endurance swimmer, tends to be in the water for six hours, then rests for six, a schedule that helps him take advantage of the tides. Even so, the 26-year-old is battling more than just the painful whip of a lion's mane's tentacle; challenging weather and shifting currents also conspire to try to knock him off course. 'We always talked about Ireland in quarters. What we realised was the first quarter was probably going to be the most challenging,' he said. 'Starting off is hard, whatever you are doing. That's the stage when you haven't really put the miles in. 'But on top of that, the first quarter of the country is very tough, not just to swim, but to navigate a boat around the likes of Slyne Head in Galway and different places like Donegal Bay, that was the most challenging part.' Daragh Morgan swimming along the Irish coast Even more challenging than the jellyfish stings? 'We had a few tough night swims,' he said. 'One of the night swims, we were going around a place called Macehead, and that was quite challenging because it was one of the first swims, and the weather was tricky as well. 'You feel jellyfish on your face at night. You can't see them. Usually it's bad enough during the day because you can see them a lot and you can try to dodge them. 'But at night you have to release whatever tiny level of control you had and you just have to keep swimming. 'The stretch from Skerries to Howth and then Dublin Bay was the worst out of the whole lot. 'Now, there are loads (of jellyfish) up the north, but they were quite a bit deeper. 'I just found Dublin, from Skerries down to pretty much Dun Laoghaire was littered with lion's mains, and they are the worst because their tentacles go everywhere. It's like hair everywhere in the water. You are getting stung a lot. 'The worst thing about them is, it gets worse when you get out. You can't sleep and you are kind of twitching with the itchiness and pain of it. 'But I try to use that to be hyperfocused. I try to anchor myself in that, to be focused. It is what it is - you can't really go swimming and not get wet.' Daragh Morgan on the Naomh Cronan Morgan, who works in sales for Innocent drinks, first came up with the idea of circumnavigating Ireland six years ago - and thoughts of achieving it 'just would not leave me.' He usually swims between one and two miles off the coast. 'We've seen great wildlife, a lot of dolphins, porpoises, lots of different diversity on the west coast. We've seen dolphins there by Skerries as well,' he says. 'No basking sharks or bigger mammals. I haven't seen any of them so far, but I can imagine there have been a few underneath me. 'We've seen a lot of seals as well. Sometimes when you are swimming you are in a flow. People have said to me from the boat, this and that was following you, and I didn't realise, because I was just in the zone. 'I know they are checking me out, but I am just firing away.' He couldn't undertake such a challenge without a support crew. After each swim, he climbs on board the Naomh Cronan, a traditional Galway hooker built in Clondalkin and gifted to Badoiri an Cladaig (the Claddagh Boatmen), to recover, refuel and sleep. 'It's been great to carry a cultural flag as well around Ireland, which this boat is,' Morgan said. On board are captain Dara Bailey, pilots Cillin and Padraic Mac Donnacha and Peter Connolly, all from The Claddagh Boatmen Group. Padraic is also a marine scientist and in collaboration with ATU and university of Galway has undertaken to collect a water sample every 20 nautical miles and filter it. The filters will then be analysed for E-DNA (environmental DNA) in order to determine the species of animals (fish, marine mammals ect) which swim in the coastal waters of Ireland. This research could provide an important baseline for monitoring species migration due to climate change and the warming of the oceans. How much longer does Morgan think his swim will take? 'That's the big question,' he says. 'I can't tell you that and it's not like I don't want to tell you, it's just based on so many factors. I couldn't tell you where we'll be at the end of the week. 'It's very hard, because you are dealing with so many factors out of our control. Really, all we kind of know about is today and tomorrow.' # Daragh Morgan is aiming to raise money for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) and Simon Community. Search for Swim Éire on gofundme to donate.
